North German-born Hasse led a brilliantly successful, cosmopolitan life. Vienna, Turin, Rome, Naples and Venice were all on his itinerary, as well as Dresden, nearer home. Hasse was a singer, as well as composer, and he married one of the greatest sopranos of the eighteenth century, Faustina Bordoni, an international star who had created parts in five of Handel’s London operas. Not surprisingly, Hasse’s music is pre-eminently singers’ music and, as such, contains a wealth of arias of striking, if on occasion, superficial beauty.
Il pellegrini al sepolcro di Nostro Signore (‘The Pilgrims at the Tomb of Our Lord’) is one of about 11 oratorios which Hasse wrote in a period of some 20 years, between 1731 and 1750. Most of these were destined for the Dresden court chapel where Hasse held the post of Kapellmeister. Il pellegrini was first performed there in March 1742. The text is by Stefano Pallavicino, who had been court poet at Dresden for many years, and who died just a month after the I pellegrini performance. It’s rather a good one, concerned with four men who go on a pilgrimage to Christ’s tomb, where they encounter their spiritual guide. There are five roles in all, two of them soprano, two alto, and the fifth, the guide, a bass.
As I have already implied, the work is stuffed full of wonderful melodies, whose rhythmic variety and effective scoring ensure an absence of monotony. The singers here are splendid: indeed, it is hard to imagine better. Gerard Lesne himself projects his voice more forcefully and with greater dramatic awareness than I can ever recall having heard him do previously, and he is particularly effective in the extended accompanied recitative in Part 2 of the oratorio. Four of the five dramatis personae have at least one aria each, only Michael Chance being denied any at all. Of these pieces, Rachel Elliott’s ‘Viva fonte’ (Part 2) and Valerie Gabail’s ‘Era amor’ (Part 2) – Telemann’s dramatic cantata Ino immediately springs to mind – are perhaps especially alluring. What a pity, though, that the upper strings of Il Seminario Musicale are so lacking either in tonal warmth or refinement. Even so, I found the performance lively and musically satisfying. The work is introduced by a sinfonia whose unexpected intervals immediately engage the attention.'